Eric J Ma's Website

This trip & conference was a productive one! I'm glad I went for it and didn't have to miss out on much (even though WebJet/Turkish Airlines (still can't sort out which) messed up my initial flight booking big-time).

My biggest takeaways from IMED 2016 are as follows:

1. One Health is a big concept for disease surveillance, and I'm convinced it's the right way to do it. Sample not just humans reactively, but also animals proactively.
2. There's a project to "whole genome sequence" viruses from a whole variety of animals, called the Global Virome Project. It'll likely have a longer-term impact on disease forecasting than virus-specific surveillance networks.
3. EcoHealth Alliance (NYC) and Metabiota (SF) are doing cool stuff for disease surveillance.
4. Made some new friends at the conference. Global conferences are always fun.
5. Learned from Drew (of ISID) that conference locations should also coincide with off-peak tourist timing and with commitments over multiple years; it helps build the case for city sponsorship as well.
6. Hackathons are fun, though I remain convinced that their main utility is as a catalyst for launching new long-term collaboration efforts, not as a way to advance new ideas.
7. Receptions at fancy places (we did the Mayor's hall) are a great way to meet new people. Note to self, if I ever organize a conference myself.

And then there's Vienna. Oh Vienna, what a beautiful old city you are. (Your donairs are awesome, btw.) I took 2 "tourist days" to walk around the city, and get a feel for it.

I got to do some more iPhone photography, which was a nice change of pace. After finding my way to the Danube, I walked back and took the train to the Vienna city centre. The photos I took were mostly of the architecture, the parks, and activity there. Naturally, I couldn't resist touching up the photos on my computer. Here's an album of my favourites.

I noticed that the public transit is amazingly advanced. Amazing, all round.

That evening, though, was when I felt the stomach bug rumbling, and I realized I had food poisoning. I'm not sure where I got it, though, as it seemed too soon after trying out Schnitzel for the first time; I thought it might have been my body reacting to an overly-oily dinner.

As such, I spent the second day stroking the cat and catching up on YouTube videos and eBook reading and sleeping in bed. The donair from a store nearby made for a good breakfast though!

That marks the end of a really fun trip to Vienna. Hope to visit again! And I hope to see the others I met at IMED again!